Entries in Taliban
(15)

Latifa Azizi risks her life to sing in public in Afghanistan on the program 'Afghan Star.' (Still snip from video/Afghan Star)Many of us familiar with Afghanistan before the Sept. 11 attacks on America are very concerned about the lack of attention to the future of Afghan women once President Barack Obama finalizes the U.S exit. Afghan singer Latifa Azizi, currently competing on Afghanistan’s equivalent of American Idol, is an example.

Sgt. 1st Class Manuel Delarosa, Provincial Reconstruction Team Zabul, Shinkai Detachment, finds a pair of shoes for a young girl as he helps Afghan National Security Forces distribute winter supplies in Safidar Village, Afghanistan, Feb. 1, 2011. [Photo: U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson]As Malala Yousufzai rode in a school van in early October, the van was stopped by men riding on bicycles. One man pointed guns at the children, asking, “Where is Malala?”

The Swat Valley in Northwest Pakistan has a population dominated by Pashtuns or Afghans sympathetic to Taliban. Sharia is the rule of law.

School girls had long become accustomed to oppression of women; that is a hallmark of fundamentalist Muslims and terrorists.

Malala's story isn't just a story about women's rights. Her story is about fundamental human rights.

President Barack Obama visited ICU at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, May 1, 2012. Obama presented a total of ten Purple Hearts, three of them to soldiers in ICU. [Photo: Pete Souza; US Army website]Late Tuesday evening (U.S. time), messages began to flow about the attacks in Kabul after President Barack Obama’s departure.

As U.S. media published accounts of MSNBC pundit Chris Matthews’ praise for Obama, journalists positioned in Afghanistan were reporting (via social media) the Taliban’s announcement of a new spring offensive dubbed Al-Farooq and the deaths of children in a suicide bombers' attack.

The latest crisis in Afghanistan stemmed from the alleged killing of civilians by a U.S soldier. Not much is known yet, but officials and civilians in Kandahar as well as President Hamid Karzai want justice delivered swiftly. On Tuesday, Time magazine said two of Karzai’s brothers were in a delegation of officials who were fired on by Taliban. Fact is the Taliban is heavily into the drug trade and ISAF forces are busy disrupting that trade.

For more than 3,000 years, Kabul has occupied a strategic location along Central and Southern Asian trade routes. In the late eighteenth century, Kabul was established as Afghanistan's capital. In this false-color satellite image vegetation appears fluorescent green, urban areas range in color from gray to black, and bare ground varies in color from beige to reddish brown. A mountain range, including Kohi Asamayi and Kohi Bini Hisar, snakes through the scene, running roughly northwest-southeast. (Photo and caption from CIA World Fact Book, U.S. Govnmt.)Media are reporting that a U.S. soldier shot and killed civilians in Afghanistan. Most stories about this incident are currently sourced to officials in the government in Afghanistan. Some areas in the country have been destabilized by Taliban eager to regain control over the country’s government.

Most U.S. media accounts like one BBC story are based on statements from “senior local officials” whose tribal affiliations aren’t questioned by journalists. Agence France Presse quoted an elder from Najeeban village and a man who claimed some of the dead were his family.

View of surrounding farmlands from within the caves at the ‘Large Buddha’ in Bamyan. The caves were once inhabited by Buddhist monks who left behind a legacy of religious frescoes and paintings, partially destroyed by the fundamentalist Taliban. (Photo and caption The CIA World Factbook)The US Report’s associate editor Chris Carter has been following political developments related to allegedly desecrated Korans allegedly disposed of by US troops in Afghanistan. Note the ‘allegedly’ is necessary for legal purposes.

Sky News and other media reported that detainees at a US-run prison were passing messages to each other via the Korans. I don’t know about Islam, but if a Christian did that with a holy Bible, that would be considered disrespectful. As a matter of fact, I was taught you couldn’t even place a book or anything atop a Bible.

President Barack Obama has struggled to deal with this matter, considering troop deaths have increased on his watch, and he began handling it by apologizing. He claimed that calmed things down and then more soldiers were shot by the Afghans we are training.